Please explain to me - how is it that Christians are defining WHO is Jewish?

Question

Surely you would all agree that only Jewish Law gets to define Jewish identity?

I mentioned politely that many core Christian beliefs are HERESY in Judaism, yet STILL I'm being told by Christians that I as a Jew am wrong and that they know more than G-d and Torah as to who and what is Jewish!!!

Do you not agree this is absurd and arrogant?

HOOSIER - I am saying that only Judaism gets to define who or what is Jewish. Just as I would not presume to define Christianity or Islam, or who is a 'true Muslim' or 'true Christian'.

If Christian beliefs directly contradict Jewish ones, and if someone then embraces Christianity, all power to them! All I am saying is, they are then Christian, and not Jewish, and should stop answering on behalf of the religion they have left and misrepresenting it.

CHIEKO - sorry, you misunderstand. I don't get to define who is Jewish. Judaism has done that already. I'm just tired of Christians telling me that yes, a person can be a 'christian jew' when there is no such thing - just as there is no such thing as a 'christian hindu' or 'christian muslim'.

MLAR - I agree with most of what you say but Christianity is not just an offshoot of Judaism. You must know that as you have been both :) They are profoundly different.

MENEHUNE - I can't answer because I myself am not Catholic and I would not presume to define who is or isn't Catholic :) I'm just asking that people show the same respect re Judaism.

HABIB - I'm 'bickering' by trying to defend my religion and to preserve the right to say it's not obsolete??? How would YOU react if someone said that about your religion???

And what email? Sorry, I really don't know what you are referring to - please enlighten me? I didn't get any email 'via' anyone!!!

GRNOW - NO, Jesus does not feature in the Tanakh/'old' testament AT ALL. You are relying on mistranslated Hebrew, and you are putting a Christian interpretation on Jewish writings. It is invalid.

Answer 1

Well, of course it makes sense that a Christian should define a Jew.

If you need medical advice, you'd seek a lawyer, right?

If you needed plumbing advice, you'd seek a computer programmer, right?

Just teasing you! Of course, it's completely ignorant. My advice, seriously, is to read up just a little bit about the Christian religion, and when a non-Jew starts spewing nonsense, turn the tables and discuss why the person worships another human being when he is allegedly a "monotheist."

Answer 2

You are right, Paperback. Only Jewish Law (Halakha) that has authority to define 'Who is a Jew?', even if the Reform does not fully agree with the Orthodox and the Conservative over this issue.

The Jewish people do say that there's "More than one way to be a good Jew."

Yet there are limits to pluralism, beyond which a group is schismatic to the point where it is no longer considered Jewish. For example, every practicing Jew considers Messianic Judaism as outside of the Jewish sphere.

Historically, any Jewish group which denied the basic principles of Jewish tradition -- Torah and Mitzvah - observance -- ultimately ceased to be part of the Jewish people. The Saducees and the Karites, for instance, refused to accept certain parts of the Oral Law, and soon after broke away completely as part of the Jewish People. The Hellenists, secularists during the Second Temple period, also soon became regarded as no longer "Jewish." Eventually, these groups vanished completely.

Nevertheless, conversion to another religion is ineffective. According to Halakha, a person is always Jewish - regardless of whether they reject their heritage, ignore it, or practice another religion. In the book of Joshua 7:11, God declares that "Israel has sinned" due to a severe transgression done by the nation. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 44a) explains: Even though Israel has sinned, God still calls they by the name 'Israel.' In other words, they are still considered Jews. And that is how we know that a Jew is always a Jew no matter what.

Please visit these two links. They are worth reading. Shalom.

Answer 3

I couldn't agree with you more, my friend. I myself am a Catholic, and I'm exceedingly tired of being told I'm not a Christian.

The only thing I find sillier than some of my Protestant friends uttering lies and half-truths about Catholicism is when they do so about Jews and Judaism. They all derived from Catholicism in the first place, and any Christian SHOULD view Jews as our ancestors in faith. Without Jews and Judaism, there could be no Christianity, as there could be no Christ.

Halacha predates Christianity by about 2000 years, so I find it utterly absurd to try and dictate who is and who isn't a Jew when that question was settled over four millennia ago.

Answer 4

i'm a sort of you communicate of. bodily i'm not jewish. yet being born back i'm spiritually a jew and a seed of Abraham. God is waking human beings up who've been asleep with regard to the meanings in the back of the jewish feasts etc.... this is not merely a realizaton that the gospel is amazingly jewish in this is beginning up yet these days there has been a phenomenon of christian after christian coming to this wisdom that those features of the gospel have not ceased. the 1st ten years of what all of us comprehend because of the fact the team of believers in Jesus (Yeshua) all of them have been Jewish. There wasn't a gentile until eventually ten years after. Later under Roman rule, the jewish traditions and rules have been forbbiden and the jewishness of the gospel replaced into hidden for a protracted time initially by potential of the catholic church which in turn madeup their very very own rules and traditions and feasts which flow against each thing the gospel is approximately. The feasts of the bible in the previous testomony and those the 1st christians accompanied forshadow the arriving of the Messiah Jesus, His delivery, His demise, ressurrection, and 2d coming and a great style of alternative events. As a born back christian all i comprehend is that for the duration of the destiny I felt a sturdy want and would study the which potential in the back of the Holy Days and feasts and why the so called christian church at present has gotten so some distance faraway from this is roots. i don't carry on with each and each of the nutritional rules. I nevertheless devour beef. I do attempt to stay with the ethical codes (10 commandments) that are a ethical code and the 613 levitical rules are a lifestle, well being and foodstuff instruction manual. The feasts and Holy Days I study and check out to observe on each and every occasion i will. that's perplexing to chop up from from the roman gadget as all of us comprehend it and retrain my recommendations to bear in mind the dates of the jewish celebrations. yet God mad it sparkling in His be conscious, to maintain the Sabbath Day holy, and the feasts have been given to us to renowned the genuine Messiah and the genuine church. (Has not something to do with changing to judaism that's amazingly legalisitic like the catholic church and different church homes).

Answer 5

The whole idea of belief in God is absurd. The fact that the Christians try to tell an "original belief system" that it is wrong is also absurd. Christians are a huge hate group bogged down in their arrogance. They talk of Jesus but "if" Jesus existed and actually came back I fear that he would overturn their temples and throw the money lenders out calling Christians a brood of vipers.

Answer 6

It's a part of the Christian culture. Not only do they demand the right to impose their beliefs on others, the impose their beliefs on other Christians. Ask if Mormons are Christian. Ask if Catholics are Christian. Every denomination will contradict the other. What a HOOT!

I told a Jewish friend about a Christian who'd gone to Poland as a missionary. He asked WHY? Aren't the Poles already Christian? HA
.

Answer 7

Of course it's absurd and arrogant! And it will continue no matter what you say and no matter how reasonable and cogent you are. It's the same old thing...."I've already made up my mind; don't confuse me with the facts." Some people who are not very intelligent and do not have the capacity to think critically and clearly respond to everything using their emotions rather than their reason (such as it is). And I don't know why, but some Christians and Muslims have a visceral and intense reaction to Jews and Judaism and simply will not listen to reason. I guess the only thing to do is to hold onto what you know to be true and chalk up the others as emotionally immature and unthinking people. Shalom!

Edit: Ha! I guess somebody didn't like being called emotionally immature and unthinking -- must be because it's true!

Answer 8

I would expect nothing less from a Christian , they take that what works well , like Judaism and the Pagan festival on the 25 December , give it a makeover and call it Christianity.

I think it is a sin to be a Christian in 2007 , these days we know so much about how Christianity was formed you have to be deluded to continue to accept the propaganda and lies .

Answer 9

For the most part I'm as open minded as they come when it comes to religious beliefs- believe what you want, just leave me out of it. In this case, however I can't help but comment on the ones who are attacking you based on this question. Jewish Nazi?.....who are you to say?....this stuff is killing me. Talk about missing the point. I didn't see anywhere in your question you telling people you were better than them or they were wrong for believing what they believe. I don't see what's so hard to understand about the concept that if you take Jesus as your messiah you have broken one of the main precepts of Judaism. It feels to me like some Christians not only want to claim the exclusive validity of their faith, but claim to define ours by virture of their inherent correctness. If you believe in the divinity of Christ, you're not Jewish. It doesn't make you any better or worse, just not Jewish. Believe what you want, make up your own faith....whatever works for you- just don't claim to be Jewish when you do. If I declared I was a Christian but rejected Christ, what do you think the R&S reaction would be to that statement? Same difference.

Answer 10

The Jewish people are descended from there forefather, the Biblical character a Christian knows as Abraham. For thousands of years the Hebrew nation that later became the Jewish nation has been proud of it ancestry. Usually Christians define someone as being Jewish, in the national sense, as a person who claims to have direct family connections with Abraham.

The Christian faith was founded as a result of the impeccable life lead by one man who we know as Jesus Christ. A recorded of his life and works it to be found in the book called the Bible.
The original 1611, King James Version of the Bible has two distinct sections the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Most of the Old Testament is to be found in the Jewish Holy book known as the Torah.
The Orthodox Jew does not accept that Jesus Christ is the Messiah that the Torah (Old Testament) promises and they are still looking of the fulfilment of the promises to found therein.
The Christian who has read his New Testament carefully will agree that the Old Testament is the foundation stone for the New. Jesus Christ opened up a path for gentiles (someone who is not of Jewish decent) to participate in the promises found in the Old Testament.

I hope this helps to answer your original question –
Please explain to me - how is it that Christians are defining WHO is Jewish?